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What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)


Ollie

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He's Japanese....

Japanese composers... just... just... quality!

There are so many that I have huge man-crushes on. Kondo... Otani... Hisaishi... Sagisu... Ifukube... Uematsu, Mitsuda, guys.. The list goes on forever.

Admittedly I don't listen to a lot of Japanese composers. Just Hishiashi, Ifukube, and the guys here recently had me explore Kondo.

But have you heard Naoki Sato? He's great!

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really? thanks for the headsup :peepwall:

the smiley database was limited here. sup wit dat?

He's Japanese....

Japanese composers... just... just... quality!

There are so many that I have huge man-crushes on. Kondo... Otani... Hisaishi... Sagisu... Ifukube... Uematsu, Mitsuda, guys.. The list goes on forever.

Admittedly I don't listen to a lot of Japanese composers. Just Hishiashi, Ifukube, and the guys here recently had me explore Kondo.

But have you heard Naoki Sato? He's great!

I haven't :o have to check that out. so far, no japanese composer (in a sense of orchestral/ost genres) has let me down. Thank you sir! And yes, good on you. Koji Kondo is a man worth acknowledging.

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really? thanks for the headsup :peepwall:

the smiley database was limited here. sup wit dat?

He's Japanese....

Japanese composers... just... just... quality!

There are so many that I have huge man-crushes on. Kondo... Otani... Hisaishi... Sagisu... Ifukube... Uematsu, Mitsuda, guys.. The list goes on forever.

Admittedly I don't listen to a lot of Japanese composers. Just Hishiashi, Ifukube, and the guys here recently had me explore Kondo.

But have you heard Naoki Sato? He's great!

I haven't :o have to check that out. so far, no japanese composer (in a sense of orchestral/ost genres) has let me down. Thank you sir! And yes, good on you. Koji Kondo is a man worth acknowledging.

I recommend this:

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that was sick! thanks for the tip. i've got some heavy Sato listening to do.

This is also great inspiration for some of the action music in the game i'm scoring!!

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Memoirs of a Geisha - John Williams

Going to School has to be one of the most beautiful JW cues ever.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly - Ennio Morricone

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The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith)

Honestly, I think the Omen scores (or at least the first and the third one) might be my favourite Goldsmith scores. From start to finish, Goldsmith masterfully crafts the religioso horror and the appropriate sense of fear. The choral treatment is the clear highlight of the score and it still impresses. What I also particularly love is the beautiful family theme, which might just be one of his best "family themes" in his career. "The Piper's Dream" makes a great song. It's brilliant how Goldsmith slowly breaks down this wonderful theme. Sapping all the joy out of it, breaking it down into creepy fragments and torturing it until it can bear no more!

And finally, the action music is riveting as always. The slurring choral pitches, the ominous chanting amidst the rhythmic orchestral ruckus beneath always puts a smile on my face. Overall, it's definitely in a top tier score in his career.

I always have a hard time picking between this and The Final Conflict which is the more operatic alternative. If I can, I think I'll give the whole trilogy a run tonight.

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The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith)

Honestly, I think the Omen scores (or at least the first and the third one) might be my favourite Goldsmith scores. From start to finish, Goldsmith masterfully crafts the religioso horror and the appropriate sense of fear. The choral treatment is the clear highlight of the score and it still impresses. What I also particularly love is the beautiful family theme, which might just be one of his best "family themes" in his career. "The Piper's Dream" makes a great song. And finally, the action music is riveting as always. The slurring choral pitches, the ominous chanting amidst the rhythmic orchestral ruckus beneath always puts a smile on my face. Overall, it's definitely in a top tier score in his career.

I always have a hard time picking between this and The Final Conflict which is the more operatic alternative. If I can, I think I'll give the whole trilogy a run tonight.

That Final Conflict score is scary. I'm afraid to listen to it.

No, really.

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Nah. I think Goldsmith's most frightening score is the original. I mean The Omen scares the shit out of me. Funny story. First time I listened to it, I let "Ave Satani" play out on my laptop speakers. I was all alone in my house, and it was really dark. So I got really creeped out and just closed my laptop...but the song kept playing. And the stupid laptop wouldn't shut off till whole song was finished! Scared the hell out of me.

Today, I always sing the Ave Satani lyrics whenever the choir is screeching it out in the music. I know them by heart. And that fact scares me... :(

The Final Conflict is more big scale, operatic stuff suited for casual listening. The action music almost sounds like Goldsmith in adventure mode (ex. "The Hunt").

But nothing beats the classic in terms of horror!

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Ludovico Einaudi's score for the 2002 version of Doctor Zhivago is absolutely gorgeous. The film (actually a two part television production w/Kiera Knightley) is fine, but obviously can't compete with Lean's epic.

But the score is absolutely sublime, and while nothing here is as memorable as Lara's Theme, in many ways Einaudi's music captures the material better than Maurice Jarres.

I highly recommend it for someone looking for a score and composer you might not be that familiar with.

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That Final Conflict score is scary. I'm afraid to listen to it.

No, really.

Really. It's far more pleasing to the ears than the first one.

True. The first one is a classic of the genre and a score I don't listen too often because it still scares the living daylights out of me but that doesn't make it any less brilliant. The Final Conflict is quite a different affair, more listenable and gothic and grand and contains a wonderful finale with proportions of a biblical epic. It does have its fair share of unsettling scoring but it doesn't have the same tone as the first score.

Also the Omen II is an often forgotten middle part, which actually is an interesting continuation of the sound of the first score but Goldsmith takes it to a slightly grander direction and adds some creepy choral textures, the croaking male choir representing the crows one of the best inventions.

:music: Jurassic Park

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I was listening to Thomas Newman's Meet Joe Black. I don't know if I like most of it, but the finale 10 minute track is quite lovely. At first glance it seems very traditional, but Newman is too intelligent of a composers to succumb to schmaltzorosis. It's both a grand Hollywood ending and a bitter drama one. Well done!

Oh and I also listened to his Little Women, which should silnce those who think he can't write purely orchestral music.

Karol - who agrees on The Omen trilogy being one of Goldsmith's finest (especially the first one)

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Got Lincoln and Lif of Pi the other day. I'm totally indifferent to Lincoln so far. On first listen, it seems like the same kind of restrained yet patriotic Americana Williams has provided a million times before, mixed with some really obnoxious source-like cues. I hope the experience improves with repeated listening. Life of Pi, on the other hand, is just wonderful. I even like the opening song.

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I was feeling ill last night and went to be early. I listened to The Spy Who loved Me before I decided to head off to sleep. If Star Wars and Close Encounters never existed I could easily see this as the Oscar winner.

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Nah. I think Goldsmith's most frightening score is the original. I mean The Omen scares the shit out of me.

I think the first two are equally scary. The Final Conflict less so, although it's a fantastic score of course, and the one Goldsmith score I always single out as his best (or one of them). It has so many different highlights... the ballsy excitement of The Hunt (the big bold brass statement of the main theme is as powerful as anything Goldsmith (and few others) has written, but there's also the Brucknerian solemnity of The Monastery and of course the biblical Second Coming, with it's more anticipatingly thrilling cousin Trial Run.

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Precisely, The Final Conflict deviates from the straight-forward horror and pushes the soundscape into a more operatic grander scheme.

Also the Omen II is an often forgotten middle part, which actually is an interesting continuation of the sound of the first score but Goldsmith takes it to a slightly grander direction and adds some creepy choral textures, the croaking male choir representing the crows one of the best inventions.

I'll post my little write up of The Omen II later, but its really little more than a regurgitation of past material. Doesn't make it any less fun though!

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I'll post my little write up of The Omen II later, but its really little more than a regurgitation of past material. Doesn't make it any less fun though!

I find the rehash claims for Omen II exaggerated, much like those for HA2. Yes, there are a few passages that are pretty straight lifts from the first score, but there are also parts that have been rearranged - and there's a ton of entirely new material, too. Plus the "croak" sounds by the male choir are terrifying.

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Can't stop listening to Twister.

They don't make Remote Control material like this anymore.

I have never listened to this score before, it's pretty good.

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Atlantis the Lost Empire by James Newton Howard: Such a magnificent adventure score once it gets going and leaves behind some of the more cartoony scoring in the early cues. Especially the finale with its beautiful and powerful harmonic choral writing is a highlight, JNH adding some exotic percussion into the mix as well.

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Superman by John Williams: Took a listen after a long while. Such a unique score yet still part of that 1970's Williams sound and style. There is a certain emotional rawness to it that is striking from the first notes. The Krypton, Smallville and Fortress of Solitude cues are still the most powerful musical sequences in the score for me but the finale is breathless thrills through and through. I just realized how Williams composed three of these nail biting and exciting endings for Star Wars, The Black Sunday and Superman in about year and a half's time yet they all convey the mounting tension and excitement in different colorful ways with very little overlap.

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The Lord of the Rings by Leonard Rosenman

A very interesting score. I love his string writing. The main theme feels a little odd, though it worked quite well in the film, and I nearly skipped the "Mithrandir" track halfway. I can't say I prefer this or Shore's score(s).

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Twister is awesome, and it has nothing to do with Remote Control Productions

It doesn't? I didn't know that. It sounds like it though.

Atlantis the Lost Empire by James Newton Howard: Such a magnificent adventure score once it gets going and leaves behind some of the more cartoony scoring in the early cues. Especially the finale with its beautiful and powerful harmonic choral writing is a highlight, JNH adding some exotic percussion into the mix as well.

Wonderful score from start to finish.

Javier Navarrete's Pan's Labyrinth.

That lullaby evokes a dark fairy tale perfectly. A good score to read Grimms to, or walking though a dark & deep wood.

One of the best scores of that year.

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"Plato's Stepchildren" by Alexander Courage. Quite an interesting psychological score, especially by Original Series standards. I really enjoyed the theme for the Platonians.

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The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn by John Williams: This score just keeps getting better. I love how Williams infuses the whole work with a bubbly and sprightly feel of excitement and adventure with good natured humour never far away. The sheer exuberance of it all is a joy to listen, the music always on the move.

And the Maestro has a chance to do some swashbuckling scoring, which is always a joy to hear, the central tracks Sir Francis and the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Curse and The Treasure soaring with old fashioned balletic melodrama that just makes you want to follow the orchestra into the fray with a sword in hand. :)

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